The office of the President of the United States on Sunday told opposition (Democrats) lawmakers that the US president, Donald Trump and his lawyers will not be participating in a congressional impeachment hearing this week, citing a lack of “fundamental fairness.” This is coming a few days after the president tweeted he is willing to testify to get the nation’s government-focused again instead of being distracted by the impeachment hearing.
Trump’s aides responded
defiantly to the first of two crucial deadlines he faces in Congress this week
as Democrats prepare to shift the focus of their impeachment inquiry from
fact-finding to the consideration of possible charges of misconduct over his
dealings with Ukraine. The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee, tasked with considering charges known as articles of impeachment,
had given Trump until 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Sunday to say whether he would
dispatch a lawyer to take part in the judiciary panel’s proceedings on
Wednesday.
“We cannot fairly be expected to participate
in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains
unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair
process through additional hearings,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote
to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, according to a copy of a letter
seen by Reuters. Cipollone – while citing a “complete lack of due process and
fundamental fairness afforded the president” in the impeachment process – did
not rule out participation in further proceedings. But he signalled that
Democrats would first have to make major procedural concessions. Nadler has
given the White House a Friday deadline to say whether Trump will mount a
defence in broader impeachment proceedings. The Judiciary Committee’s
Democratic staff did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the
White House’s refusal to participate in the hearing, which would have been the
first direct involvement by the Trump camp in a process he has condemned as a
partisan “witch hunt.” Democratic U.S. Representative Don Beyer said on Twitter
in response to the White House letter: “Not one process complaint made by the
President and his Republican allies in Congress so far has turned out to be
genuine.” Congressional investigators have been looking into whether Trump
abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to launch investigations of former
Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, who is running to unseat him in the 2020
presidential election, and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not
Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Source: Vanguard News Nigeria.